


Side Project

by Aelaer



Series: Tumblr Prompt Fills [4]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt Stephen Strange, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 10:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22968811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aelaer/pseuds/Aelaer
Summary: Fill for this prompt: "Tony buys a crashed Lamborghini Huracán to rebuild in his spare time."
Relationships: Tony Stark & Stephen Strange
Series: Tumblr Prompt Fills [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1479815
Comments: 22
Kudos: 72





	Side Project

**Author's Note:**

> Babywarg on tumblr added "The flashbacks Stephen would get seeing that car again…" and this ficlet quickly came to life. 
> 
> Prompt originally from ironstrangeprompts, though this can be read as either strictly friendship or pre-relationship, reader's choice. Originally posted on tumblr.

PTSD attacks were funny things. Not funny _haha_ , but funny _strange_ (no pun intended).

Stephen knew precisely how it worked, of course. In the minute it took him to send himself in a truly spectacular fashion down the side of a mountain, his amygdala was hyperactive while his hippocampus was suppressed, leaving a strong emotional memory without a clear memory of the exact events that happened (even for him).

PTSD was funny, though, because even if an individual knew exactly what was happening and could list the symptoms and diagnosis while the event happened–

It didn’t make a damn bit of difference.

Like many PTSD attacks, it came unexpectedly. Stephen had decided to indulge the eccentric engineer he was becoming rather fond of when Tony said, “Hey, I just finished a restoration project, want to see?”

He shrugged. “I have some time.” He had a class to teach in Kamar-Taj in an hour, so plenty of time. And so he had followed him down to the lower levels, which, despite being underground, were well lit and aired by windows set high on the wall and some areas of the ceiling where it went beyond the confines of the building above it.

As they turned a corner, Tony started, “I got it for a killer price at a local scrapyard a couple years back; the water damage made the entire interior unsalvageable, but miraculously the chassis was all but perfect.”

Stephen’s brow furrowed. “Chassis? A car, then?”

“Yeah. Took me some time to hunt down some of the replacement parts, of course.”

They turned a corner and there it was, maybe ten feet in front of him, and his vision started to tunnel. Part of his brain recognized the license plate – QSD-4439 – and even though the car was currently painted crimson red, it was his car.

“… you can imagine the difficulties in getting parts for a Huracán, but the market does exist, though most of them came from Europe…” Tony wasn’t looking at him currently, was pointing out this and that on the car, and it was getting difficult to focus on his words.

The Lamborghini had a certain smell. Did it always have that smell? Maybe it was just a clean car smell, combining with the fresh smell of rain outside, which probably only made it worse.

Stephen heard the rain, too, but it sounded more like the sound of breaking glass and bending metal, and there was a sudden excruciating pain in both of his hands and he knew exactly, _exactly_ what was happening but it didn’t stop amygdala from going in complete overdrive.

“… you okay?”

He blinked and stared at Tony, who was staring at him but he couldn’t figure out his look right now, couldn’t really focus on him, on anything currently.

“I–” Stephen swallowed. “I’ve got to go.” He needed to get out of there, now.

“Stephen–”

He didn’t allow Tony to finish. Hands that were flaring up in pain and shaking more than usual lifted up to create a portal and he hurried through it and didn’t look back.


End file.
